Who We Are
Green Mind is a national, youth-led initiative dedicated to supporting the emotional wellbeing and mental health of young people who are growing up in a time of environmental uncertainty. We work across Canada, with a particular focus on youth living in rural communities, Indigenous nations, and underserved areas where access to mental health care, climate education, and culturally relevant programming is limited or entirely absent.
At Green Mind, we believe that climate change is not only an environmental issue. It is a human issue. It affects how we feel, how we relate to one another, and how we imagine our future. While many organizations and institutions focus on climate science and policy, very few focus on how the crisis feels to the people who are living through it, especially youth.
Every day, young people are exposed to news about wildfires, floods, droughts, and rising sea levels. They hear about endangered species, food insecurity, and shrinking biodiversity. These facts are often presented in classrooms, in the media, and on social platforms without any guidance or space to process what they mean emotionally. As a result, many youth experience feelings of fear, helplessness, sadness, anger, grief, guilt, or even numbness. These are not small or isolated reactions. They are deeply human responses to a very real and ongoing crisis.
However, these emotional responses are often overlooked. In schools, there is usually no structured opportunity to name or explore what students are feeling in response to the climate crisis. In many homes, especially in communities facing economic hardship, mental health is a topic that remains stigmatized or misunderstood. Even within environmental activism spaces, emotional experiences such as anxiety or grief are frequently dismissed as distractions from the work that needs to be done. This creates a dangerous silence—one where young people are expected to carry the emotional weight of the world without being offered the tools, language, or support to make sense of it.
Green Mind was created to break that silence.
Our Purpose
We exist to create space. Space for youth to speak openly about what they are feeling. Space to understand that their emotions are not a weakness but a sign that they care deeply about the world. Space to learn how to move from despair to action in ways that are compassionate, sustainable, and rooted in community care.
Our mission is to make climate conversations more human. We work to ensure that mental health, emotional literacy, and cultural wisdom are recognized as essential components of climate resilience. Through workshops, toolkits, community partnerships, and peer-led initiatives, we provide resources that are clear, inclusive, trauma-informed, and grounded in respect.
Our Guiding Beliefs
We believe that:
● Emotional health is essential to climate resilience. Young people cannot carry the work of climate action if they are emotionally exhausted, isolated, or unsupported.
● All emotions have value. Grief, anxiety, joy, hope, and anger are all valid responses to climate change. They deserve space and acknowledgment.
● Youth are not only future leaders. They are already leading today. Their lived experiences, cultural identities, and creative ideas should be central in shaping the future.
● Indigenous knowledge, land-based teachings, and community wisdom are essential to healing both the planet and ourselves.
● Resilience is not about being strong all the time. It is about being able to ask for help, connect with others, and take care of our minds and spirits while we work for change.
Our Story
Green Mind began not as an organization, but as a quiet realization that something was missing. Our founder, Inaam Chattha, a young person growing up in a rural community, noticed that while climate change was being discussed in school, nobody talked about how it made people feel. There was no space to share the fear, the sadness, or the helplessness. Over time, that realization turned into a project, and that project grew into a national movement.
Today, Green Mind is led by a passionate team of young people from across Canada. Our facilitators, advisors, designers, storytellers, and volunteers come from diverse cultural, geographic, and experiential backgrounds. Together, we are building a movement that centers care, community, and emotional honesty. We work alongside Indigenous Elders, educators, artists, therapists, and local leaders to ensure that everything we offer is grounded in both scientific understanding and cultural respect.
Our Impact
We have reached youth in classrooms, summer camps, cultural centres, and online platforms from coast to coast. Our work has supported young people in planting trees, organizing wellness events, launching art-based campaigns, and leading school initiatives that address both environmental and emotional needs. More than anything, we have created spaces where young people can feel seen, heard, and understood.
We are not interested in performative solutions or temporary fixes. We are here to build long-term systems of care. We believe that a just and sustainable future must include space for grief, joy, creativity, and emotional connection. That is why Green Mind is not only about protecting the planet, it is also about protecting the hearts and minds of those who are rising to care for it.
